A historic winter storm in south Alabama on Tuesday broke Mobile’s 130-year-old snowfall record and brought a rarely seen covering of snow to the beaches of Gulf Shores. But while it gave folks in Mobile an exceedingly uncommon opportunity to build snowmen,

All-time record snowfall blanketed the Mobile area on Tuesday. Footage from Noah Scheeler shows the campus of the University of South Alabama draped in a thick winter coat, as snow continued to fall in the region.

Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida. The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.

For the second time in two weeks snow is falling in Alabama, but on this occasion the weather event is targeted in the southern portion of the state. And, it’s bringing a rare snowfall to the sugar white beaches of Gulf Shores.

Areas throughout Alabama experience heavy snow amid an record-breaking historic winter storm spread across in the Southern U.S.